Hope of the Galaxy: Countdown to War
by Digital Riot
Summary: This is a rewrite of my original Hope of the Galaxy story. But instead this will have a different plot and newer characters. It takes place in an Alternate Universe where the Earth is not destroyed and instead spreads out to become the Solar Republic. The Solar Republic and Apex threaten the peace in the Galaxy, and it is up to one team to help save it. Can they do it?
1. Fishing in Baku

**Hey everybody, Riot here. I am making this new story which isn't really new. It is actually me re-writing the original Hope of the Galaxy. So it will have a new plot and a few different characters but it is just the more polished and refined version of the story. **

**For those of you who haven't read the original Hope of the Galaxy here it is: The Earth never gets destroyed, and instead it becomes the galaxy's second most powerful empire. The Human Empire (or The Solar Republic) is one of the main superpowers in the galaxy as they struggle to fight against the Apex Miniknog. The Solar Republic has colonized and terraformed every planet in the Solar System (save for the gas giants) and has colonized out into the Kepler, Centauri, Proxima, and Orion systems. But the main habitations of the Republic lie on Earth, Mars, and Luna.**

**The Terrene Protectorate in this story assumes the role of the United Nations in our modern timeline, and maintains a code of civil laws and conducts that all nations must abide to. **

**Of course this story deviates (A LOT) from the Starbound lore, and this is of course not a prediction of the future (duh), but I saw that there are enough loopholes in the game to make this story seem real enough to possibly happen. It was inspired when I wondered what would happen if each of the major races was a nation? **

**P.s. In case you don't already know, this should be a great story for anybody interested in Sci-fi stories, political stories, and alternate timelines of historical events (because I am a big history geek). **

**P.p.s The plot and many features of this story were inspired by or mixed heavily with the game Battlefield 4 and 3, as well as, Orson Scott Cards Enders Game. I love Battlefield (like love, love it) and I recommend playing it as a majority of the plot comes from BF4 and BF3 and I also recommend reading Enders Game. So much influence that I considered making this story a crossover, but decided not to for now. **

**Without further ado, here is "The Hope of the Galaxy: Countdown to War" **

**(I know that Baku is the capital of Azerbaijan. Just, increativity okay... Cut me some slack)**

I banged on the door, trying to see if it would give way. It didn't, I must have been trapped behind at least 5 feet of rubble.

I muttered a curse under my breath, and turned around. Ahead of me was the rest of the hallway. A school building that has long since been deserted. Plant life grew in crevices through the walls, door led to destroyed classrooms, and artwork on the walls were almost completely faded away. It was creepy as hell, I navigated through the hallway, through fallen lockers, bobbing and weaving my way through the ruin. Faded paintings of Apex children were plastered on the walls under a large flag of the Apex Miniknog party.

This kind of propaganda existed everywhere. I held my gun closer to my body, the floors gave way in certain areas, the roof collapsed in some parts, I couldn't comprehend whether this was the result of natural wear and tear, or if it was done on purpose during one of the Apex bombing runs. Either way, I needed to regroup with the rest of Tombstone squadron, and fast. Before the Apex military closes in.

My EMC uniform was green and tan camouflage. The flag of the Solar Republic stood on my chest. The Solar Republic was my home.

Allow me to introduce myself. I am Isaiah Nelson, part of the 22nd EMC division. I am in squad "Tombstone". Now you may be wondering what all this stuff is. Well let me give a little history lesson.

The Solar Republic is the official nation of Humanity, it is centered around our main planet Earth and is one of the 4 main superpowers of the Galaxy.

The EMC is the Earth Marine Corps, it is a army trained to fight specifically on planets rather than space. The EMC is a branch of the ISDF. The ISDF, or Inter-Stellar Defense Force, is a military that fights and is trained in space.

I am a soldier in the EMC. And I have been deployed to an old abandoned Apex city called Baku. I am here for a special mission, to find and retrieve Intel from the Apex. It is something that could be potentially game changing and hazardous to the security of the Solar Republic.

I kept walking through the ruins of the building. Entering inside a room, I notice a large hole in the floor leading to the floor under us. Apex soldiers were inside the hole, scouring the area looking for me and the rest of Tombstone. I carefully tip-toed around the hole quiet as a mouse, and entered into another labyrinth of hallways. More Apex soldiers coming from the floor above, I heard their footsteps and I heard them talk to each other.

I kept walking through as quiet as possible, and reached a door. I silently pushed it open, and a gang of bat-like creatures took into flight and flew into my face. Disoriented I stumbled into the room, where somebody grabbed me by the collar and pushed me on the floor. When I recovered, I found myself looking straight into the barrel of a gun. Another Marine held his gun to my face, while shouting.

"STAY RIGHT THERE, DON'T- " I got a good look of his face, he did the same. He removed the gun, and let me go. Parker helped me stand up. The marine was wearing the same uniform I was in, green and tan but instead of a helmet he wore a beanie and had an sleeveless shirt.

"Damn it Isaiah. I almost shot you in the face," I chuckled a little," You lost your cool-"

Suddenly a door to our right opened, and we trained our weapons on the intruder. Another marine, dressed almost exactly like me just without a helmet. His name was Myers, and he was our commanding officer. He didn't seem to care at all that we had our guns trained on him, as he observed the room around us.

"Ease up soldiers, where the hell have you two been?" He demanded.

"After the pursuit went pear shaped, we came straight here. Apex, Special operations right? One second they are there, the next they're not…" Parker started to panic, but Myers calmed him down. He put his gloved hand on Myers shoulder.

"Relax Parker. You got the Intel?"

"Yeah, I have it right here." Parker pointed to a pocket on his chest. Under the flag of Earth, and the Solar Republic.

"Nice play. It's breaking daylight. Isaiah, do you have any idea where Irish is?" Myers asked me as he walked to one of the boarded up windows.

"No, I thought he was with you." I said to him.

"I am breaking radio silence~

[Myers] "Tombstone 4 to Tombstone Actual, what is your location?"

[Irish] "Tombstone Actual (*heavy breathing), inbound from the North. Requesting cover fire on my advance!"

[Myers] "Copy that Irish, we have you covered."

Myers turned to us when the radio call ended, "Parker, Isaiah. Take positions by the windows. Get ready to fire on my mark!"

Me and Parker hurried to the windows of the building, on the streets below were a few civilians, a couple of Apex Red Army soldiers among them. I was about to fire when Myers radio buzzed in again.

[Irish] "Hold your fire!"

The trio of us stood, guns ready, waiting. Irish made a huge mess when he came into our line of sight, crashing through a storefront window, with a wolf-like creature trying to maul him.

"Get the hell off of me!" I could hear Irish say as he punched the 'dog' after getting ontop of it. He quickly took cover behind a van, as the civilians dispersed. Red Army Soldiers poured into the streets. Myers gave the signal, and the bullets started to fly.

It was at least a 4v20 situation. It wasn't a fair fight. Not fair by any standards.

I almost felt bad for them.

One by one, the crack Apex infantry started to drop like flies. Oh, I might have forgotten to mention. Tombstone is one of many Elite ISDF/EMC Infantry Squadrons. The best of the best, these untrained conscripts didn't stand a chance.

After what seemed like fifteen minutes, the gun smoke cleared and Irish looked out from his hiding position.

"Did we get them?" Parker called out to the street.

"Yeah, there is nothing left!" Irish called back, he stood up and began running across the street towards us. He jumped atop a window frame and climbed up to the window we were in. Myers grabbed his hand and pulled him inside.

"Are you alright, Irish?" Myers asked, after pulling him up from the lower levels.

"Yeah, I guess this safe house isn't so safe." Irish, walked towards the center of the room next to me and Parker.

We all nodded our heads.

Myers nodded himself, as a sign of confirmation. He fiddled with his earpiece and talked into it.

[Myers] "This is Tombstone 4, to Fortress do you read?"

[Fortress ] "This is Fortress, we read you loud and clear, over."

[Myers] "We captured the Apex Intel. But we stirred up a hornets nest. Requesting confirmation of our extraction."

[Fortress] "WILCO, your extraction target remains unchanged. Redeye 14 is en-route to the Landing Zone, over."

[Myers] "Understood, Tombstone 4, out."

"Alright Tombstone. We don't have much time. Let's move, fast."

We marched through the building, avoiding patrols of Apex soldiers, until we approached a dead end. Myers hand me an explosive device, a grenade launcher of sorts.

"Alright Isaiah, let it sing." Myers said to me, I nodded my head and kept my finger on the trigger. Pulling it, the gun made a sound like a suction cup being removed. Then the wall became a flash of white, yellow and red light. I felt heat and a bit of a blast from the explosion. When the dust settled, there was no more wall.

Ahead of us was a green field, with a oil refinery in the middle of it all. It was filled with concrete structures, walls covered in graffiti, sewer drains to nowhere special, everything you need to have a really bad day. Skyscrapers were being constructed, farther past the oil refinery. I could see the cranes, blue tapestry and everything.

Myers stopped me from continuing on. I looked at him, and he handed me a pair of binoculars. State of the art ISDF equipment too.

"Isaiah, I need you to find the our extraction point. HQ has marked it onto the digital world, these bino's will help you see it. When you find it, tell me. And, I am letting you keep them. Guard it well."

I looked through them, I was met with a blue world. A red circle indicated what the extraction point was, it was atop one of the skyscrapers. How in the world we would get up there was beyond me. But we were Tombstone, we would figure it out. We always do.

"There it is. Atop the building to the east. On the rooftop, that's our objective."

"Alright, everybody spread out. Apex infantry could be lurking anywhere." Myers said. We dispersed and treaded lightly. We heard a whirring sound come from behind us, like a engine going into a superpower mode. The sound became louder and louder, until a gray and black helicopter appeared from behind us. On its belly, the words "EMC D-12" were etched in gray.

[Redeye 14] "This is Redeye 14 to Tombstone 4, I am ready to give you guys a transport outta here, and to help clear out some Apex infantry ahead of you."

[Myers] "Tombstone to Redeye, are we glad to see you! We should be at the extraction point in fifteen minutes. Over."

[Redeye 14] "Understood, hey Tombstone heads up, I am reading multiple heat signatures from the ridge above. Looks like Apex infantry."

We looked towards the area Redeye was talking about. Indeed, the Apex had began to block all points of our escape. They flooded in with vehicles and mass amounts of soldiers. A bullet whizzed right past me and cracked into the ground next to me.

"Hey Isaiah, take cover!" Irish yelled before pulling himself behind a concrete wall. I did the same, Myers and Parker took position on different concrete barrier to the left of us.

"Hey Isaiah! Use the binoculars to designate targets for Redeye!" Parker called out. I fiddle with the equipment strung around my neck, and looked through. There were at least 30 soldiers in the field ahead of us, opening fire at us. They were highlighted and a red color, so the helicopter pilot could see and exterminate them.

I looked at the aircraft, and it opened fire ahead of us. A swarm of missiles and gunfire erupted from the chopper and the ground ahead of us was turned to nothing but fire and light.

"Come on Tombstone! Move up, through that drain pipe. We move through there into the next complex."

The drain pie was essentially that, a road crossed over it and it led to the other side of the road or highway. Whichever it was.

We entered inside the pipe, inside was what seemed to be a mix between an office and a forward Headquarters. Probably used by some Apex rebels to operate while hidden from the Miniknog. While walking through, a dimmed red light illuminated the area. Anti-Apex resistance posters were on the wall, confirming my belief that this was a rebel hideout. Looks like they had to evacuate after the Apex bombing runs however.

"What is inside that Intel, that Earth wants so bad?" I asked Myers as we navigated through the pipe.

"Hmmm. Lets just say, it is a lot of important detail. It reveals a lot of things about the Apex and their technological advancement. I remember something about a bomb of some sort when I was being briefed at HQ. No matter, the Intel that we hold here can change the future. Forever, and Earth will be damned if they don't get their hands on it first." He said.

Something about a bomb? Interesting. As we walked I searched through rebel documents scattered about on tables and chairs. Most of it was about the Apex and different strategies to bring Big Ape down. But there was something else that caught my eye.

"Hey, guys. You might want to come see this." I said after flipping through a couple of documents. Myers looked back at me and shook his head.

"No time for that now, stow it away somewhere, I'll look it over when we've been picked up by Redeye."

I nodded my head and put it in a pocket of mine.

We emerged out the other side, closer than we were before to the oil refinery. In fact, it was right in front of us. The helicopter flew ahead if us, searching out the enemy.

[Redeye 14] "Tombstone, Apex infantry is ahead of you, I will try and clear them out-"

A rocket fired from the Apex and just barely missed the helicopter. It swerved backwards and little particles of light dropped from it. Flares I think, another rocket fired and missed too, however it hit one of the oil tanks and a huge explosion ensued. It almost fried my vision it was so bright.

[Redeye 14] "Shit, I am being engaged by Apex anti-air. I will meet you at the extraction point, get here fast Myers."

The helicopter swerved around while deploying flares, to the construction site.

"Rules of engagement sir?" Irish asked.

"Fire at will." We let the guns sing again. The fire was still there from the explosion. Apex infantry tried to duck and hide for cover. The wind started to pick up, I don't know if it was from the explosion or if it was natural. Either way, we were clearly winning the battle. After a few minutes the Apex started to retreat.

"Good, everybody move up." Parker said, moving up ahead. The rest of us followed him until we were right in front of the construction complex. Broken windows, tattered blue coverings, metal equipment everywhere, and a lot of dirt.

"Man this place gives me the creeps." Parker said when he entered inside.

"Yeah, it does a real shitty job reminding me of home." Irish agreed.

We looked around for a place to get up to the roof, and discovered a rusty old elevator. Myers led us inside , and it didn't look too safe at all.

"This is our best way up?" Irish asked Myers, when we were all inside.

"It's the fastest. No time to explore other options." Myers pressed a few buttons on a control panel, and we were on our way.

The view was breathtaking to say the least. But not in the way I would expect. The city if Baku, was quite literally, on fire. Pillars of smoke rose from fires and bomb craters all over the city and mixed in the sky with the starlight . There were two stars on this planet actually, one in the north, and one in the west.

"Hey, Myers. I'm sorry for blowing our cover back in the school building." Irish said apologetically.

"It's okay. We are all alive. That's what matters."

"This may be a crappy ride, but it sure is one hell of a view." I said out loud to nobody in particular.

"Wait until we reach the terrace." Parker joked back.

"Oh now I expect to be blown away."

"Shut up, both of you. Eyes peeled, Apex infantry can be anywhere."

We continued up for a little while, but then Redeye called us on the radio.

[Redeye 14]"Hey Tombstone, heads up! Apex aircraft is headed your way! Looks like a hovercraft!"

As soon as the call finished, a sleek black hovercraft rolled into view. It was almost completely black, save for a red stripe going down the sides of it. And it was armed to the teeth. It turned around and aimed its guns at us.

"Guys! That thing is about to open fire on us!" Parker cried out.

"EVERYBODY, GET DOWN!" Myers yelled out. We all hit the dirt, just as a missile erupted from the hovercraft, and hit the elevator.

I was launched to one side of the elevator, as it began to fall and detach from the side of the building. Sparks went flying as metal crashed and collided, I could hear the screams of metal clanking and scraping against metal. But then the elevator swung back, straight into the building.

We went straight through a concrete wall, and all of us were thrown out the elevator. A small fire started inside of it.

"EVERYBODY UP!UP! GET UP!" Myers called us on, despite the protests from my feet which must have received the brunt of the blow, I still stood up and started to run with the rest of the group.

"Holy Shit, they are trying to bring the whole building down!" I heard somebody say.

"Come on! Go, go!"

We ran through a metal walkway as the hovercraft opened fire. Metal sparks flew into the air, as bullets crashed with the steel walkway. I had to duck down a few times to narrowly avoid a piece of metal falling down on top of me.

"How long do we have until we get there?" Irish asked Myers.

"Only a few more flights of stairs until we reach the rooftop!"

We ran up the stairs and entered into a massive room with solid concrete floors. The roof collapsed on this floor, allowing us to easily access the rooftop.

"Look out!" Somebody called. The hovercraft flew over the hole in the roof, and missiles came flying down ontop of us. I tripped over and landed flat on my face, barely dodging the explosions. I was disorientated until Myers climbed ontop of me, shaking me to my senses.

"ISAIAH, COME ON GET UP! WE HAVE TO GO!" He pulled me upright, and I was on my feet. We ran and climbed ontop of the collapsed roof.

[Redeye 14] "Myers, where the hell are you? The building is unstable!"

[Myers] "On the rooftop, running!"

After running for some time we finally saw the helicopter that would get us out of here. A few marines were inside, cheering us on.

But then, the hovercraft came back. It fired another missile at us, this time it hit a concrete pillar which fell ontop of our transport. The concrete hit the metal blades of the helicopter, and the aircraft swerved towards us.

[Redeye 14] "Shit, I am losing controls! Stand back!"

I was pushed on my back from the shock, and the metal blades kept inching closer and closer towards me. I crawled on my back trying to move away from the blades of the helicopter, and almost as soon as they were going to hit one of my feet and effectively chop it off, Redeye banked the helicopter upwards, the helicopter flew out of my view. But I had bigger things to worry about.

The floor under us collapsed and we slid down off the roof into the floors below. The building was tearing apart. Myers was trapped under at least a foot of concrete, and I tried to grab his hand, but I missed. I kept sliding until I slid off the edge of the building. Grabbing onto the edge, I was left dangling some 100 feet or so in the air.

In the corner of my eye I saw a fire through the sky, turning my head I saw it was Redeye. His engine caught on fire and the helicopter was spiraling down towards the ground, it exploded as soon as it made contact with the ground.

Then I heard yelling, screaming almost. Myers was sliding into my view, somehow he got out of the boulders prison he was trapped in and was sliding towards the edge of the building. I grabbed his hand before he could slide off, and it left the both of us dangling over certain death.

I tried pulling us up, but the concrete I held on to started to crack. And then it crumbled. The piece I held onto fell, Myers and myself did too. When I hit the ground, I blacked out. All I remember was quietness, and peace. No pain at all, it was weird considering I fell from what had to be at least fifty feet onto even more concrete.

I woke up with dreary eyes in a dark prison, and I heard yelling.

Soon I saw the outside world. Irish pulled off pieces of rubble off my body. It hurt as he removed them, not to mention I was wearing at least twenty pounds of gear.

"Holy shit," Irish pulled a large piece of concrete from my face, "Are you okay?" Irish asked as he continued digging me out the rubble "Parker! Do you see any sign of Redeye and the rest of the crew?"

"No. No one survived that! "

"Get Myers away from the wreckage", Irish said to Parker. It was obvious something was going on I couldn't see. Something dangerous.

"I can't [grunt] he is buried!"

"Try your best! I am over here digging up Isaiah!" Irish turned back to me to dig me out.

"Arrgh! My leg!" I could hear Myers cry in pain through clenched teeth.

I got out from the wreckage and was assisted by Irish as he pulled me up.

"Oh man, oh man." Parker was about to panic. "Jesus Christ! His leg looks like popped sausage!"

I looked around and saw Myers, Parker was bent over him trying to free him of his prison. Aircraft fuel was all over the floor, and it was on fire.

"Your goanna be fine Myers. Your goanna be okay, man. We are goanna get you out!" Parker said.

"Parker the fuel!" I warned.

"Yeah I know!"

"Why don't we use our matter manipulators?" I asked.

"Too risky. We might ignite the fuel, or cut Myers leg, or…" Irish warned me against using it. I kept it inside my pack.

"Isaiah! Come over here! I need your knife!" Myers yelled out to me.

"What for, sergeant?" I asked him.

"I'm goanna have to cut the leg!"

"You need to do what?" Parker stole the words from my mouth.

I drew closer to Myers. He was on the floor, and he did not look okay. He was obviously in a lot of pain. Blood stained his face and body. If we didn't get him out soon, the fuel would explode or he would bleed out.

I knelt down beside him, and drew my knife. He looked me straight in the eye, and I realized that I had to do this.

"In order for the wolf to get out the trap, he needs to chew off his own leg! Come on Isaiah, the bone is powder just flesh and uniform keeping me here!" Myers said as he looked at me.

Parker and Irish didn't say a word, they just watched. I placed the knife under his leg and waited for Myers to give me the signal. He took a few breaths in, and gave me a thumbs up. I looked away and jerked my hand up, closing my eyes.

"ARRGH!" I heard him yell. Parker and Irish dragged Myers from under the rubble, I threw the knife away somewhere and followed them.

"Holy Shit! Is he dead?!" Parker asked, his voice wavering and shaking.

"No he just went into shock. Come on man, you're the combat life saver, you should know this!" Irish answered.

"It was only a three hour course!"

A civilian car pulled into the wreckage, a local came out the car with a look of worry and anxiety on his face. Which was justified, the wreck before us was enough to scare me. He came out and began asking hundreds of questions in a broken Solar commons.

We could tell that he was asking if we were all alright. He even offered us his car which we really needed at the moment, he backed off and ran to wherever he came from, leaving us to our own devices. We loaded the injured Myers into the backseat of the car, and when everybody got in, I floored the gas. Immediately we got the hell out of there, the car swerved around the wreckage and burst through a fence that served as an entrance to the area. Irish contacted Fortress, Fortress being the ship from which we came.

[Irish] "Fortress, this is Tombstone actual, we lost our evacuation ride. One of our squad members is seriously injured, and we are driving down towards the bay area. Requesting a new evacuation, over!"

Almost immediately Fortress returned the call.

[Fortress] "Copy that Tombstone, we have a new evacuation site. Head up the highway, three clicks north, and head east around exit 45, we have dispatched a emergency drop ship to get you guys. Fortress, out."

"Hey, Isaiah," Parker called my name from the back seat as he tended to Myers, "You see the hovercraft?"

"No visual, its gone I think… wait, its coming back around!" The hovercraft emerged from above the hills, as I drove down the road. At first it seemed as if it would fly past us, but once it got far enough distance away it swerved back around and opened fire.

Curse words and swears were exchanged as I yanked on the steering wheel to dodge the beams of super hot plasma that was raining down upon us.

The hovercraft needed to reload, and I found an opening, a tunnel that is. I put the pedal on the floor as we barreled into the tunnel where the hovercraft couldn't see us.

Myers recovered from his shock, but was still obviously in a immense amount of pain. Try as Parker might the painkillers that he carried where no where near strong enough to deal with a severed leg. He did manage to bandage the wound and keep the stump from bleeding.

"Argh, my wife. She is goanna kill me, if she sees me like this!" Myers spoke through clenched teeth.

"Don't worry Myers, we are getting you home! Alright, just stick with us!" Irish called out, his forehead sweating against his skin.

"Irish, if the Intel that we collected from the research lab in the city is true, none of us are going home."

My hands were shaking, a bad thing since I was going through the tunnel at least eighty kilometers per hour. My arms ached, my hands were sweaty (not to mention I was wearing gloves, so it didn't help all too much), my fingers twitched, it had "bad" written all over it.

We emerged out of the tunnel to find out that the highway ran along a stretch of rocky coast. Icy waves crashed against the rock shores, and the sea spray splattered on my windshield. The car slipped and slid all the way as the wheels tried as hard as they could to get any inch of traction possible. Then, I heard it.

"I-Isaiah! Isaiah, the damned bird is coming back around!" Parker confirmed my fears. I pushed down even harder and the wheels screamed in protest and agony. A barrage of plasma beams shot at us from the sky, and almost all of them missed, save for one. It blew the driver side door open, and I almost fell out of the car, had I not grabbed onto the walls of it.

We passed the hovercraft, and Irish took the wheel while I tried to regain my bearings, it was lining up for another attack. Irish handed me the same grenade launcher from earlier, and it seemed as if time slowed down at that very moment.

"Burn those motherfuckers!" Irish screamed at me, I took the launcher in my hand and fired a shot that was perfect. The grenade went straight into the cockpit of the hovercraft, and it exploded from the inside. It turned into a ball of fire and swerved up fast and really high, while I pulled myself back into the car.

It came crashing down right in front of us and the explosion pushed the car off to the left, straight into the water. I slammed the door shut as the car was launched off the highway and into the icy water.

I blacked out again, to wake up to a conversation, it was quite calm. Regaining my focus, I saw outside was a dark blue color.

"Hey, Irish. You know what kind of fish they have here n Baku?" Myers asked the man, who shook his head.

"Negative staff sergeant. Hey," He turned his focus to me, "Isaiah. Are you conscious? Stay in the game, man, stay with me!" He shook my shoulder. I brushed off my dreary eyes. My head hurt like hell and I knew at that moment that the helmet of mine was a blessing from god himself. I must have hit my head on the steering wheel when we collided with the water, blood was on the wheel and my nose hurt a lot. After wiping my nose, a trail of blood came out, exactly like how I thought.

"Isaiah, man. That was some of the finest driving I have ever seen, right up until the end. Parker, hit the lights." I accepted his compliment, as Parker turned on the carbon lights and illuminated the car. Cracks were forming in the windows, and we were only sinking deeper.

"Shit, your seat won't move. Your pinned in sergeant!" Parker said to Myers, who was stuck between two of the seats. The car was upside down so we were all on the roof of the car, except Myers who was stuck.

"listen, Parker, the worst thing we can do in a situation like this, is panic." Myers said to ease the worry in his voice.

"Myers, I swear, when you talk like that you scare the crap out of me!" Irish said in a nervous chuckle.

But soon things became even worst, we were still sinking and the cracks were growing bigger. We could tell our supply of air was running out and if the glass didn't break and drown us, we would suffocate.

The plan was to free Myers, shoot the window, and swim out of there, but Myers just couldn't move.

"Argh," Parker groaned in agony, "We are still sinking!"

"Hey, Myers, we are going to get you out of here! Alright!" Irish yelled. The commotion only made my head hurt again, but I tried to focus on getting Myers out as much as possible.

"Isaiah, take my gun." Myers handed his favorite pistol to me, I accepted it in my hand without much thought because my head still hurt, but soon I knew something was up. It might've been the next thing he said, "In order for the wolf to survive he needs to chew off his own leg!"

"What the fuck are you thinking!?" Screamed Irish, as he looked on in disbelief.

"Isaiah, shoot out the window." Myers egged me on. My hands started to tremble, and I broke out into a nervous sweat. It was because of that, or because the sir we were breathing in was not fresh at all and was running in low supply.

"What?! Negative sergeant, don't do it!" Irish protested, my hand moved without my consent, however slow it crept along. The gun shook in my trembling, and gloved hand as it slowly moved towards the window.

"No! Myers, we are not going to leave you here to die!" Irish yelled at the top of his lungs, with his voice cracking from the pressure.

"Myers, we can't do this!" Parker also joined in.

"Save yourselves, think men, think! If you shoot out the window one you can all swim free. But if you don't you will all die! Isaiah, shoot the window!" My mouth twitched at the sides.

Irish was screaming his head off in the back, and Parker pleaded with Myers. But no matter what, we all were prepared to swim. And then my finger slipped.

The glass shattered, the car filled with water, and we all bailed out. All except for one. Myers. I swam out the car with Parker and Irish right behind and next to me. I poked back at the car but I couldn't see Myers, it kept plummeting down.

I saw the surface of the water growing close, and my lungs screamed out to breath fresh air, and my arms were growing weak, but my brain pushed me forward. And we broke the surface, taking the first fresh breath of air we had in the past fifteen minutes or so.

-End transmission-

[Garrison] "Tombstone retrieved the Intel."

[Zee] "And?"

[Garrison] "In the event of a military coup, the Avians, Glitch, and Florans would remain loyal to the Apex. The general of the Apex has the full support of them in case war breaks out with us, The Solar Republic."

[Zee] " So that confirms our report from our assets in the Miniknog."

[Garrison] "So let me get this straight. Staff Sergeant Myers, was killed for something we already know?"

[Zee] "(*an audible sigh is heard over the phone) The Apex are on the brink of a civil war right now, and the Terrene Protectorate is getting involved. We needed to know for sure. The fact that we had to lock down all trade nodes and space lanes outside the Solar System is delicate enough, one wrong move, and we are talking war."

[Garrison] "Oh and about that extra bit of Intel Isaiah picked up from the rebels?"

[Zee] "It is being analyzed. Good thing he picked it up, because this is major. But I can't tell you right now. You have your orders captain"

[Garrison] "Aye-Aye, steaming towards the Apex main planet."


	2. Mercenaries

**Hey guys, a bit of a warning for this chapter, there is a lot of boring stuff ahead. It is mostly where I explain the Solar government and political orientations which is stuff I am interested in, but you might not be. So I will place a warning for this chapter when this appears, so you can skip to the better and juicy stuff of the story. Now onwards!**

We were aboard the SRN (Solar Republican Navy) "Columbia". After our expedition in Baku, Fortress (the call sign of the captain of the vessel, his name being Garrison) decided to pull us out of the planet all together. Our little espionage run has finally come to an end. They gave us a few days aboard the ship as we traveled through interstellar space, technically illegal, but we were the Solar Republic. So who cares? Right?

I spent most of the time thinking about how in the hell we lost the best commander I have ever served under. I felt as if Myers didn't need to die. But who am I to tell? War is war, and people die in wars.

The ship we were on was operated by the ISDF and was staffed with Marines and ISDF soldiers alike. But a few protectors were on board, Most of them from Hylotl, Novakid, and the rest were of a many different races descent. But mostly human Marines and ISDF soldiers occupied the ship.

The Columbia was a big ship, commissioned about 50 years ago, it was one of many carriers of the Solar navy. The ship in design was basically a space ship carrier, a mothership of sorts. It housed hundreds of smaller ships and vessels that are used to be launched ahead of the Columbia in combat. It has long since lost it's splendor as it had to make way to newer and more advanced ships, but it still was a force to be reckoned with.

Tombstone, Misfit, Delta, and Foxtrot squadrons were all housed in a larger room with bunks, tables, a television, electric oven, and radio. Our home, the room designated 122 TMDF.

I spent most of my time in my bunk thinking about how badly we messed up in Baku. While High Command considered it a victory, I thought we had done everything wrong. It seemed the rest of Tombstone wasn't very happy either, the four squadrons were usually always laughing together, but with one of the soldiers missing it seemed that the fourth squadron was a little tired of all the fun and games. Parker, myself, and Irish moped around the room, in our bunk, or sitting by ourselves while the other men laughed, celebrated, and played cards.

It was agonizing, waiting for those days. During lunch, I felt like a angel had kissed me when our squadron crackled on the radio. A female voice came on and read the beautiful sentence I ever heard, "Tombstone; Isaiah Nelson, Trevor Parker, Omar Mohammed (Irish's real name), report to Captain Garrison's headquarters ASAP."

Tombstone jumped up at the fact and we practically ran out of the cafeteria. We twisted down through the corridors and labyrinths of the Columbia until we reached the headquarters of Garrison. Stepping inside, we saw a older man in his mid fifties, balding and with white hair. He was rather skinny, and he had a pistol on the cabinet behind his chair. We would joke that if you ever got him upset while standing in his office, he would just take the gun out, shoot you, and eject your body through the airlock. But there were no jokes today.

Garrison looked solemn too. Was it the water?

"Tombstone, gather around. We have a really big situation on our hands today." He said without looking up at us, and instead studying the numerous papers scattered around his desk.

We stood around him as he looked up and addressed us.

"Martial fucking law for over a Trillion people. They're all pissed off about the assassination of Jin-Je." We knew instant that he was talking about the Apex.

"Who was he sir." Parker asked, a question that we all had.

"He was on deck for the presidency, pushed for transparency of their government, freedom of speech, and fairness to the people. Now Admiral Chang, convinced than a few of them that we, killed Mr. Je." Admiral Chang was the leader of the Miniknog People's Navy. He became famous, when he attempted a failed coup to gain control of the government. It achieved limited success as hew was granted virtually unlimited power, but had to give the people free elections because the country went into collapse after the coup and he needed to prevent it from becoming an all out civil war. But after numerous riots, he enforced martial law in the country and froze the elections.

The situation was extremely unstable, until Jin-Je showed up (Garrison explained this to us) he gave the people hope of a better future. A future that wouldn't be trifled with despair and war. But last year, he was assassinated. Admiral Chang led a campaign to make the people believe the Solar Republic was at fault, and ever since the Republic has gotten more enemies than friends. The Solar Intelligence Agency (SIA) swore on its life it had nothing to do with it, and all out war almost broke out between the two countries, until the Protectorate stepped in.

"…He convinced more than a few of them that we, killed Mr. Je. Now if this operation blows up, he will be able to direct and give all that hate…all that anger, a real target. It will be war."

A war between the Miniknog and Pentagon seemed almost inevitable, but everybody in the galaxy tried as much as they could to prevent that from happening. The last time the Apex and Solar Republic was at war, was nearly two hundred years ago in the Second Galactic War. And it tore the galaxy apart. There are still some countries that haven't yet fully recovered from the shock of it all. And it forced the galaxy to remember that no matter what, war between the two countries must be averted as much as possible. No matter the cost.

"Now your job is to accompany Misfit, Viper, Foxtrot, Delta, and Cobra squadron on an assault on a Kluex extremist base on the desert planet Solitudinem. That Intel Isaiah picked up in the rebel hideout has led us over there to find something game changing. But High Command, _in all their wisdom_, needs more information to take action." Garrison finished as he returned to his desk.

"Don't worry sir, you picked the right squadron for the job, we will get it done-" Garrison interrupted me by putting a hand on my shoulder. He looked me straight in the eye as he said his next words.

"I have decided to put you in charge of Tombstone for today's mission. It was after all, Myers wish. His loss is, tragic to say the least. Don't make me regret his last wish…" He started addressing everyone, "…Do the right thing. Go in and retrieve whatever it is Command wants. No room for mistakes boys."

**(Warning boring stuff) **

The current political situation of the galaxy was not simple to explain. So let me over simplify it for you. There are currently millions of different nations and races. All with varying degrees of influence and power. And millions more yet to be discovered. But ten of them control the most power. The Solar Republic, Kingdom of the Glitch, Novakid confederation, Apex Peoples Republic, The Florian tribal confederation, Cuzco Empire, Papua, The United Federation (A merchant republic with a very diverse population ranging from nearly all races), Galactic Empire (A vast warmongering country) and the Grand Monarchy of the Hylotl.

Out of these Galactic powers five of them hold even more power than the rest and are considered 'superpowers'. These countries are, The Solar Republic, Apex People's Republic, Galactic Empire and the United Federation.

To understand the Solar Republic, I have to explain to you the country and its government. Its capital, on Earth in a city on Antarctica (creatively named The Capitol), is the most populous and diverse planet in the known universe, with a last check indicating a population of over 507 Billion people. The Solar Republic is centered around Earth and it's main star, Sol, but it has control over every planet in the system as well as fully colonized the Centauri systems, Orion, and Kepler star systems.

The government is a democratic capitalist state (with some Socialist influences like free Healthcare and education, welfare, you know that stuff). The country is ruled by a Congress, and each member represents and is elected by a planet or territory the Republic controls (when it comes to Earth, there is a councilman for every district on Earth, I will explain this later). Every congressman is called a Minister, with the head of the congress known as a Lord or Executive minister. It is this congress that decides the fate of the country, and while it is bound by a constitution it is the congress ( AKA the National Assembly or The Council depending on who you ask) who has the most say in how the country is run. Except for the constitution which cannot be overridden by Congress in anyway.

The Constitution, the most sacred document in Solar history, is a series of forty codes that lists all the rights and abilities of the people, government, and military. It has forty codes which cannot be changed or overridden in anyway, but it can have more codes added on to it as problems arise and transpire. These codes are not as sacred as the first forty and can be repealed by congress if congress vote unanimously to remove it.

And on the subject of Earth, our main planet is probably one of the most unique in the entire galaxy, considering the fact that it has 'districts'. These districts are the remnants of the warring nation states that decimated the planet nearly two thousand years ago. After the Third and final World War, Earth was invaded by the Florans (Humanity up to this point, only had colonies on planets in the Solar System and never ventured out) and the Earth, aided by the United Nations Organization (Which still exists to this day) unified, and each country was demoted in status to district with representative power in congress, but no national army, separate government or laws. The capital was moved to a city called Kodiak (A Pan-American research station) and Antarctica became an administrative district with no representative power other than to pass laws.

Now back to the political stuff, The Solar Republic is the galaxy's second most powerful nation, the single wealthiest nation, and the fourth largest in size. Ahead of it is the Apex, who maintain a huge army, yet it is mostly full of conscripts rather than Solar volunteers. The Apex and Solar republic have been rivals ever since humans first emerged out of the Solar system and ventured beyond into Galactic politics (this was back when both countries were practically unheard of and much weaker, maybe 2 thousand year ago). This rivalry has sparked two Galactic wars, countless civil wars, revolutions, a biological disaster, a economic depression, and has coasted the lives of millions.

The Solar Republic was gaining on the Apex, and fast. It wouldn't be long until the Republic eclipsed the Apex completely and took the spot as number one in galactic politics.

The main allies of the Solar Republic are the Hylotl, Novakids, and Avians (there are actually two different countries of this race. The nation of Papua ,the one the Republic is allied to, is made of grounded Avians and is a democratic state, while the other is known as the Cuzco Empire and is controlled by an emperor with unlimited power), United Federation.

The main allies of the Apex are the Cuzco Empire, Glitch Kingdom, Tribal kingdom of the Florans, and the Galactic Empire.

This rift in allies has meant that these two countries (Solar Republic and Apex) have become the two most powerful in the discovered universe. And the two countries have the most fierce armies too, with Solar Republic wielding the mighty ISDF and EMC, and the Apex using the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA).

**End of boring stuff**

I myself am Isaiah Nelson, I was born to two parents, and they moved to a colony out to a mining Colony in the Kuiper Belt, but a 'accident' took both of their lives. This was when I was still a newborn. I was taken into and raised in an orphanage with other kids and I made a few friends and enemies. But my life changed when I turned 12 years old.

Every child has to take the Solar National Exams, a test that shows the various skills and brain power that you possess. It doesn't usually affect anybody's life in anyway the government just uses that information for a worst case scenario where it has to assign jobs, but I scored so high on the political, historical, and general knowledge aspects of the test that the Solar Republic sent me an invitation to go to Battle School.

Now, granted, this was technically illegal. I was far too young to go to Battle School. It is usually 16 or older, but the Government granted me 'special circumstances' citing that since I was a orphan I had no choice.

Being twelve, I thought it would be exciting, and my child self accepted the invitation. I left Earth and went to a orbital station surrounding Luna to do battle testing and training. And that's how I ended up in the Marines. To be honest I am still considered, too young, to be a Marine. I am only twenty one and I haven't started to grow a beard yet (I am working on it) while all the other guys need to shave at least twice (or even thrice) a week. Despite being pretty tall, and looking older than I really am, I currently am, was, and probably always will be too young to be in the Solar Armed Forces.

Why I stayed, I don't know. If I took the Republic to court I could sue their ass! But I didn't. I liked it here, and I felt like this is what I needed to do, my 'destiny' if you will. And slowly I rose the ranks from Battle School (AKA boot camp), to private, to Sergeant, to Special Operations Force commander.

But enough about me, lets get back on with the present situation. The Apex have gone through a series of revolutions and civil wars and now there are two armies fighting for control. The Rebels, and the PLA.

The Rebels are losing the battle severely, but that hasn't hindered the government from feeling the setbacks of such a disaster. Admiral Chang and Jin-Je were vying for power in the upcoming elections. With Jin-Je assassinated Chang was the only one left with any chance of becoming the new chancellor for the Apex Peoples Party, and if he gained that position he could attempt a second military coup to take power away from Big Ape. The Rebels have been fighting for a new state and regime for years now and the situation was only getting worst. Top that with a famine, extreme climate change on the Apex main planets, and a brutal police force, the Apex were extremely unstable.

Now the Pentagon on Earth, and the Miniknog on their capital planet are vying for control as the Apex is slowly crumbling to ashes. Chang has done many things that have upset or even completely disobeyed Terrene Protectorate law (numerous civil rights violations to boot).

I followed the rest of Tombstone back down to the main building. We were due to go towards fitness training right about now, as we were assigned new schedules for running a mission in a day or so. The good thing about running missions, was that they always gave your squadron a better breakfast and lunch and even dinner, either as a thank you gift or a last meal. Maybe it was a good luck charm? Either way I didn't complain, eggs with chopped peppers and veggies in it, with a side of toast sure as hell beat freeze dried foods.

After Personal training, which left my entire body sore and aching from having to do endless exercises and getting screamed at by a instructor, the Marines pretty much had the rest of the day to do whatever. After taking a shower, we headed down to the common area. A place where most of the squadrons on our deck (group of floors on the ship) congregated. A television, pool table, poker table, computers, even a beer fridge. But something else caught my eyes.

Two Avians, one male and female. A Floran (male I would assume, but I don't think flowers have genders). And a female human, she looked as if she was from one of our mining colonies. They wore rugged and low grade clothes and armor. They wielded some pretty decent weapons.

"Mercenaries," Irish muttered under his breath. He stole the words straight from my mouth.

"They have no honor. No pride. No values, damned mercenaries." Parker added. They served no nation, except the one who paid the highest price. They had no god, except money.

Congress outlawed the practice of recruiting mercenaries for the Solar Republic. So these guys technically had no right to be here, unless they were being paid by the Terrene Protectorate, which still recruits mercenaries, and uses them in their Protectorate force. The entire situation is rather complicated but here is a breakdown:

The ISDF and EMC allows Protectorate forces to use their ships to get from destination to destination, but the protectors must fulfill various quests that arrive from High Command. Since High Command doesn't allow mercenaries to do these tasks, the mercenaries join protectorate ranks to gain access on board ISDF ships and receive tasks from High Command. Remember when I said mercenaries have no honor?

"No god except money. That's all they fight for, they have no flag, no country, no banner," I said before I called them out, "Mercenaries! What the hell are you doing here?"

One of them looked up at me, the human, and what I assumed was the commander of their group, looked up at me. She looked tough, a scar adorned her left eye, piercing emerald eyes, a tall and rather tomboyish physique.

"What do you want, can't you see we are busy?" She said, a bit of sarcasm in her voice. I folded my arms, mercenaries were always tough. They sure as hell had skill, and they fought like a vicious dog. But they had no discipline, they had no real training. Even Apex conscripts were more trained than they were.

I remembered the image of a Avian mercenary, a really big guy, he was sure as hell strong, stronger than me, but I whipped his sorry behind! They looked tough and were extremely dangerous, but an Apex conscript (let alone a Marine, or even ISDF soldier) would rip them apart.

Tombstone has dealt with the toughest mercenaries before. They didn't scare us, but we didn't show it. We stayed a little more humble.

"You do know this is Solar property, right? And if Home world Security finds out you were here…" Parker was interrupted as the Floran flashed a Terrene Protectorate insignia.

"What are you doing here anyway?" Irish asked them, the leader just rolled her eyes and sighed. Very annoying, considering the fact that they don't belong here.

"What's it to 'ya?" I could tell the Human was a farmer before she was a mercenary, probably from the agriculture planets Titan or Kepler.

"This is our ship…"

"Do you own it?"

"Do you even know who Garrison is? Does he know you are here?" The mercenaries behind the woman looked ready for a fight, which would have been a stupid move. Even though Tombstone was the only squad currently in the room the rest of the ship was still filled with hundreds of Marines and ISDF personnel. But she ignored them and continued talking to us.

"Garrison knows, and you ought ta' stay outta my business!"

"Mercenaries, only thing you bastards fight for is pixels and fame." I muttered while I turned my back on them.

I decided not to press it any further, whatever happens to them wasn't going to find its way back to me. I can't believe Garrison would let these crooks onboard the ship. But what could I do about it? If High Command wants something done, it will get done. That's the bottom line, no use fighting it. Besides, a fight with these monkeys would probably get my ass screamed at by the deck captain.

That guy creeps me out, so I have been trying to get on his good side for a while. He usually just stares at people he doesn't like and then they disappear with no trace a few days later.

Tombstone left the common room as it was apparently 'occupied' and we took ourselves elsewhere. I guess those mercenaries got into a fight with nearly every squadron on this deck, because nobody was in the room at this hour. And since it was around d 2 o' clock EDCT (Earth daylight commons time) that meant the interstellar soccer cup was on around now, and people would rather die than miss that.

Everybody just bunked down in their rooms, and we did the same. Misfit, Delta and Foxtrot were all in our bunk room, as expected, watching the game.

They were so into the little black box on the wall that they barely noticed us entering, only one of the sergeants noticed our existence in this universe. Blackburn, he turned his head to us for a brief moment and waved his hand, then his head snapped right back to the television.

I saw Piles of Terra (Solar Money, Terra being the Latinized name of Earth, why we still use a language that was over 5,000 years old to name things, I have no idea) on the table and floor. They were placing bets on the game, and I could tell the tension rising.

I myself, wasn't a fan of soccer, or sports in general. I was more a computer type of guy. The only thing people watch television nowadays for are cartoons (if you are a kid, or a nostalgic adult), movies, Galactic News, political debates, philosophical talk shows, and sports. Television shows, celebrity gossip shows, and talk shows (in general) have largely died out. People just stopped watching them, good riddance.

I had a personal computer that I brought from a store on Mars a few months ago, and decided to use that to fill in the free time. Irish video called his wife, and Irish read his Quran (he was Muslim after all). My computer was my main source of entertainment, and literature. Especially the latter since the Columbia doesn't have a formal library (That hasn't stopped people from stealing books from libraries on Earth and smuggling them here to form a bootleg bookstore).

A story was circulating around the Commweb (Communications Web, the internet for the galaxy) that the Penn Republic, a nation made up of pirates, bandits, raiders, and black market crooks, was recruiting Mercenaries to defend the country from Terrene Protectorate attacks, and to help assist in raiding trade routes. But it wasn't just that, the Penn Republic and Apex seemed to have teamed up to develop new ships for pirating. And the Apex have gotten in on this Mercenary business. Those mercenaries we met in the common room seemed all the more suspicious. I made a mental note to make sure to keep my eye on them.

But brushing past that, the Apex and Terrene Protectorate have clashed heads again, and a Protector has been sentenced to prison for 40 months, doing hard labor, for treason. This has of course pissed off the Protectorate, especially since they were already upset at them for siding and aiding the Penn Republic AND for the numerous civil rights abuses that have plagued the nation for the past few centuries.

The Solar Republic has decided to capitalize on this, and the Lord Minister of Congress gave a speech rallying all the allies of Earth in a call of arms against the Apex. Admiral Chang in response has started a Anti-Solar propaganda campaign throughout the universe and hacked into many television news station throughout hundreds of smaller nations displaying their message. The hack lasted for about 12 hours until the SIA managed to lift the cyber attack.

That's another thing the Solar Republic and Apex love. Instead of fighting with weapons, they fight on cyberspace. Launching Intel attacks, hacking each others servers, conducting Commweb espionage and sabotage, funding rebel agencies (a harder task for the Apex since there are no documented rebels fighting against the Republic), launching proxy attacks, and selling private information to black market and dark web buyers. All of these are very illegal, and very, very, low blows.

Despite the fact that the Solar Republic rarely ever listens to what the Terrene Protectorate considers illegal and legal (it does what it wants mostly), the protectorate rarely ever calls the republic out on it. Maybe because the headquarters is located in Berlin, District of the Deutschland. And that almost half of its budget comes from Solar donations.

Once in a blue moon the Protectorate will actually call the Solar Republic out on doing something wrong, and usually the Republic will comply. Usually. But the Solar political agenda and Terrene political agenda are very similar and diverge little, so it doesn't make a difference either way.

Screaming came from one end of the room. A fit of yelling, cheering, and bragging came from over there. Somebody just lost, and now they had to pay for it, quite literally.

"Fork over the money, Montes," Blackburn said cheerily like. A hint of 'ha-ha-in-your-face' was present in his tone. Montes, looking sad, took his bundle of money and distrusted it among the men. Cheering, and taunting ensued, while Montes just looked at them. Misfit squadron loves to bet money, they love it. It seemed the betting only took place within that squadron, because Delta and Foxtrot still had their eyes and attention fixated upon the screen.

"Isaiah, can you believe this? Some bullshit right here I will tell you that!" Montes said to me when he begrudgingly gave his last Terra's to another Misfit member, Campo.

"You were the one who bet money on a soccer game, if that isn't asking for trouble I don't know what is," a fit of laughter ensued from Misfit.

Montes retired to his own bunk. Clutching whatever was left of his paycheck. Oh, I forgot. Today was payday.

"Isaiah, where is Myers? Last I saw him was…." Campo squinted his eyes to remember the date, "I think last week. What, did they give him leave?"

"Yeah, they gave him leave all right," Everybody could tell from my tone that something was up.

"What really happened to him?" Li Jie of Foxtrot squadron asked, we usually just called him Lee.

"Drowned…off the coast of Baku. He got his leave, and he sure as hell isn't going to come back." Even the most dedicated soccer fans of the group were silent, they pulled their attention from the screen to us. Now they understood why we were so quiet the past few days.

The silence didn't help, I would've rather if they just went back to whatever they were doing. Irish closed his eyes, Parker just stared at the roof, and I myself looked down at the bed sheets.

"Well… look, we get deployed tomorrow. And Command is sure that whatever we are looking for is going to be worth all the while. Hopefully he hasn't died in vain." Matkovic from Foxtrot said.

"Hasn't died in vain, my ass," Campo spat out, "Tell me. How many more people are going to die even after him? You think all war is going to stop? And the entire universe is just going to join hands and sing kumbaya and joy to the world? Fuck no!"

Obviously Campo was upset, and who wouldn't be? But Campo was an exception, he practically loathed everything political and would rather have it that we just did away with governments and people in suits and let everybody do what they want. He wasn't an anarchist per se, but he wasn't exactly happy with the way things were going now.

"Everybody who died in a war has died in vain. No matter the reason. If they fought for the love of their country, they died in vain, all empires no matter how strong collapse some day. The Republic will fall someday! Could be tomorrow, the day after, or a million years in the future. If they fought in the hope of preventing more war, they fought in vain. Look at us now! Fucking bullshit, I don't even understand why I'm here."

Campo stood up and left the room, slamming the door on the way out. He was prone to rants like this, and we were quite used to it really. But damn, he was right. Why am I even here? Any of us?

"He is right you know. Why are we here anyway? Delaying the inevitable isn't why I signed up for this. The Republic will fall one day, one way or another. Just like every empire in history has," Irish said, his eyes still closed.

A depressing silence fell over us. One thing was clear, Myers wasn't going to come back. No matter how much we debated the ethical, or the moral consequences of war, it wasn't going to bring anyone back home.

Matkovic stood up and went to his own bunk. He opened his journal and began to write. After a while he nodded his head and put the pen down.

"What are you writing?" Parker asked him, Matkovic smiled.

"You want to hear it?"

Parker nodded in agreement. Kovic cleared his throat.

"The guns will rust, and the grass will grow. And someday somebody will look at all of this and remember. Remember our sacrifice. Our stories. Our legends. Our fighting spirit. But by then, we will be little more than faded away. Hopefully, just maybe, we will be gone. But not yet forgotten."

Matkovic smiled, he always had something great to write. He was a poet, hoping to make it big one day and go down as one of the greatest.

"It's beautiful Mat. Beautiful…"

"It is a work in progress, ja (a little of his Polish accent breaking through). But, I need a name." Kovic laid back in his bed.

"How about, Sand through the hourglass?" Blackburn suggested.

Kovic shook his head no.

"Nothing is ever written in stone?" I asked, Kovic thought about it.

"Nothing is ever written in stone. Nothing is ever… Nothing is written in stone. I like it."

He wrote the name on his journal. Campo came back, he had the smell of cigarette smoke and carried a newspaper in his hand, and bottle of water in the other. Campo wasn't a smoker really, he only did it when he got stressed out. Which didn't happen all the time. Nowadays, people never got addicted to the stuff, it just didn't happen.

Campo sat down and opened the newspaper, skimming through the happenings and going to the crossword section. His favorite.

After a while he called out, "A word that is seven letters long and means to uphold…"

"Protect? Wait no, that isn't it…." Lee tried to help.

"Value? No that's not seven…." Said Montes.

"Enforce? Enforce?" Blackburn tried. Campo nodded his head and wrote it down.

They kept egging the crossword while I stay on my bunk. There was a window in the room leading to outer space, but all you can see now is a bright milky color full of orange and pink and blue, and yellows. We were going far too fast to be able to see what was outside. We only got the chance when we slowed down by planets or space stations.

A hour or so later and the room was a lot calmer, the memory of Myers was still there but it wasn't enough to dim down the lights forever. And it was up to Irish to let his family know what happened. Speaking of which, he was on the floor, on his knees, with his head facing down.

He was praying, and it made me think of praying to my own God. As far as I could tell, only myself, Matkovic, and Irish were the only ones who were outright about our personal beliefs. And Lee was the only explicit Atheist. Everybody else just kept silent.

So I imitated Irish and prayed to my own Christian God, I asked for protection for tomorrow. As we were about to head out, and maybe, just possibly, never return.

Matkovic mumbled to himself about new ideas, I could hear him rejecting ones he didn't like. The ones he loved, he would jot down.

"Woe to Man. For our lives are just but a flash. But a bang. But a crash. Woe to Human mortality, for we all must go. Adam and Eve's sins in the garden still haunt down every living man to this day. And for what? For death is relief. Relief from the problems of this world, relief from the sins of man. For our lives are short so we must not deal with the torture and suffering and misery for long. And the knowledge that there is a light at the end, a dream."

Kovic shook his head, and tried again. It wasn't right. It needed to be better in his head. Even though I myself would be surprised if I came up with that. Damn I needed to show this to a publisher, or something. The guy is a genius.

Even after an hour, Campo and Blackburn were having a yelling match about what word belonged where on the crossword puzzle, Lee was listening to his own music and podcast or a combination of both, Parker reading a book (probably smuggled from a library somewhere, the sly dog), and everybody else doing whatever they do in their free time.

It was peaceful. Especially since the soccer game ended.

**-End Transmission-**

"The strike begins tomorrow. We confirmed everything there is to confirm, and there is definitely something there."

"The Intel Isaiah picked up in Baku was even more important than the Intel they were sent to capture."

"If I may ask, but what was in there anyway?"

"A lot of stuff. The Apex Rebels are doing everything in their power to bring down Big Ape. But, it seems they are resorting to more desperate measures." Zee Feng the director of Situational Command, or SITCOMM said to Garrison.

"Like?..."

"Nuclear devices…"

"But we don't even have a nuclear weapon arsenal. Where did they get that technology from?"

"Black market, you can buy just about anything."

"Zee, but this is major. Who sold that to them." Garrison asked.

"Hopefully this raid will let us find out. And we can put a stop to this madness. High Command is still a little suspicious. The people in the Pentagon have no idea what is going on, and the whole Pentagon is about to burn down."

"Who knows how much damage those rebels will cause if they have a WMD in their hands. And to think we are funding them."

"The Solar Intelligence Agency is still trying to figure out a solution. Our latest asset, Solomon, is onboard and is cooperating with us. The whole situation should be cleared up after the raid. But until then we are in the dark. Now TMDF's operation is crucial. Especially more for Tombstone since they are leading the raid. Whether this operation succeeds or fails is on your shoulders and your tactics Garrison."

"I am sure Tombstone and Misfit will be able to retrieve the Intel. Delta and Foxtrot are also extremely capable of their mission. You can rest assured that this will succeed."

"It had better, the fate of the Galaxy is at hand…"


	3. Solitudinem

We sat in a transport vehicle dressed all out in our uniforms and helmets. Guns at our side. The truck was 'The Dino' a Armored Van with a machine gun port on the top and all kinds of equipment. It looked like a very decked out utility vehicle. Inside we sat, no windows for safety. A single red light donned the inside. We drove in along with Misfit. On the desert planet of Solitudinem. It was a Avian planet, but EMC forces occupied it because of the high intensity fire between Kluex extremists and Grounded Militants.

"This whole place gives me jitters, you know. All this war and violence." Campo said, with a nervous and shaky tone in his voice.

Montes punched him in the arm, "Hey, quit being such a fucking hippie man! We are in here, and there is no getting out."

"Yeah I guess so…" Campo resigned.

A crackle on the radio signified someone trying to message us, it was Garrison (or his call sign, fortress). He had a message from SITCOMM.

[Fortress] "This is Fortress to Tombstone and Misfit squadrons. Your coordinates have been changed. You are going to get off at grid Q17, sector 2. Do you copy?"

Blackburn returned the radio call with his own answer,

[Blackburn] "Copy that, any other information?"

[Fortress] "Yes, meet with Major Townsend. You are to move towards city center, grid Q8, and assist Viper and Cobra squadrons fighting for the stretch of highway as they were ambushed by a band of KE's (Kluex Extremists). When the KE's are wiped out, your mission will return back to normal and you will continue up until you reach the bank. That's all for now, Fortress out."

[Blackburn] "Solid copy, Tombstone-Misfit out."

"What the… this can't be right our extraction is three clicks up north." Irish asked Blackburn.

"Yeah what's SITCOMM doing sending us here?" Parker asked.

Blackburn shrugged his shoulder, "Listen man I don't fucking know! SITCOMM just wants us to stop here, for whatever reason."

"We have to bail out Viper and Cobra, they were ambushed by KE's. Hopefully no one is too badly hurt." I said to them, hoping against hope that nobody was seriously injured, or worse…

The Dino screeched to a stop, and the red light turned green. The door unlocked and Campo opened it. Fresh air and sunlight poured in, and I was damn near blinded by it after sitting in the truck for almost an hour.

We stepped outside and took a quick look around. A lot of Avian civilians were here wandering about the streets. They noticed our presence but didn't let us stop them from doing what they were doing. A little Avian girl ran up and gave Parker a rose. Parker just smiled, accepted it, and put it between his helmet and the strap of his goggles. It held in place, and he gave the girl some pixels for it. She bounced away in joy to her parents, and that was the last I saw of them.

"These people are nice, good people. Too bad they live in a place like this." Parker giggled as he fixed the flower.

"You ever look around and wonder how these places get so fucked up?" Campo asked.

"Not now, we have a job to do. We are soldiers, not philosophers." Irish said, holding us gun a little closer.

Campo sighed as he silently agreed with Irish. Everybody followed me through the market as the Dino for Delta and Foxtrot squadrons sped past. We marched through the twisting alleys, people looking up at us with interest. They moved out of the way whenever we came near, out of fear, respect, or distaste I don't know. I had the feeling it was more distaste, Marines come in to mess things up. Wherever we are, trouble follows.

I was elected as the commander of Tombstone and Misfit. They followed me through the alleys until we saw another group of soldiers gathered around the map.

They wore the same uniform we did, and they were humans like us. Raider Squadron was written on the emblem of their squadron. This was Regional Command. Raider Squadron gave orders to everybody in the region, but they received orders from Situational Command on board the Columbia.

"Tombstone, Misfit, over here," stated the captain of the REGCOMM team. We all took a knee around him.

"My name is Townsend. And you are to follow every single one of my orders while you are down here. So here is a briefing before you go in…" he pointed to the map,"…KE's are starting to get really violent. Cobra and Viper squadrons are currently pinned down to the north by the city center. We need you to go in there and assist, avoid any KE patrols if possible and try your best, to not die. Simple enough?" Townsend looked around, nobody said anything we just nodded our heads.

"Good, now go out, stay alert, stay alive."

"Alright, Tombstone-Misfit, on me!" I signaled. I lowered the microphone attached to my headset to my mouth and fastened my helmet. Matkovic took off his helmet and put a crucifix inside. Blackburn did the same, but with a picture of his family.

As we walked it felt as if we entered a whole new world. The usually busy city was a ghost town one. Nobody was outside. It was quiet…too quiet.

"This whole place is off the chain man," Campo said, "A few minutes ago, there were people living life as usual. Buying goods, talking and shit like that. Now there is nothing, zip, zero, goose eggs. Where the fuck is everybody?"

"Everybody on guard. Stay frosty, just because it is quiet doesn't mean there isn't any danger." I said, looking down sight of my rifle.

We passed a chain link fence and a weird, blue dog-creature materialized out of nowhere and started barking. Leaping on to the fence. It startled Irish and Parker, where they took a few steps back. Parker looked as if he was going to shoot the animal right then and there but decided not to, when the dog quieted down.

"Hey Isaiah, Parker, remember that time when we were in Toronto and we were just looking around, when some big dog got loose and chased us through the street?" Irish called out.

"How could I forget? The damned beast made us run a mile! We had to hop a fence. I think it was you who put it out of its misery right Parker?" I said, remembering the moment. It was hilarious. Scary, yet hilarious.

"Hell no, not me. I'm scared of dogs. It was Kakabeka who did it. Remember him, I think he is in Atlantic Squadron. I think they are on the same deck as we are…" Parker laughed as we waked into a courtyard.

"Hell yeah, Kakabeka did some judo kick on the poor thing. Good old Kak, I haven't spoken to him in a while. Remind me to give him a wedgie when we get back home, oka-" Irish was interrupted when a sniper round went straight into his chest, piercing through his Marine armor.

Irish fell backwards, and landed on his back. Everybody at once started to scream orders. The bullet came from seemingly nowhere. The cracks and bangs of the rifles began to whir to life as they tried to shoot at whatever just gunned down Irish.

Take cover! Return fire! Irish is down cover him! Sniper! Were among the glimpses of words I managed to catch as the almost eerie blanket of silence was torn apart.

I rushed out to grab Irish and get him to safety as the rest of the Marines went up to return fire. I pulled him by the straps of his bag on the floor behind a wall of sandbag.

I couldn't tell if he was bleeding or not, the Marine armored vests were pretty thick. I would have to take it off to see.

"PARKER, GET OVER HERE! NOW!" I yelled out, trying to raise my voice over the sound of bullets being fired from their chamber. The pound bangs of the bullets managed to rip past even my noise reducing headset. I could hear my own voice through the headsets radio.

Parker heard my voice over the radio and pulled back towards me.

"What do you think it could've been?" I asked Parker as he took off Irish's vest.

"Considering it most likely to be from those KE's maybe a crossbow or something rather than a bullet. If it is a crossbow it might have been a poison dart." Parker answered while getting out his painkiller and bandages.

"I don't see an arrow, then it must've been a bullet."

Parker nodded in agreement.

"How you doing buddy, you okay?" I asked Irish, who nodded in pain. It was clear that he was hurting bad. Just good to make sure he was alive.

"Alright. Don't you worry about a thing, we got you covered! Just hang on in there!"

"Trying my best, Sergeant!" He was barely able to speak, much less move about. I let Parker do his own thing and moved up to fire at the enemy, who was pouring into the courtyard.

At least ten or fifteen KE's filled the courtyard, firing at us in a frenzied attack. But us Marines had much better discipline and tactical knowledge and within minutes the ambush was wiped out.

"Campo, give me a sit-rep!" I called out. Campo looked around the courtyard.

"Courtyard clear! Looks like everybody is dead."

"Parker, how is Irish holding up?" Montes asked when we all recovered from the ambush.

"Good, right buddy?" Parker looked up at Irish.

"Yeah, phew, feeling better than ever. You sure can work magic, doc." Irish said as Parker pulled him up and wrapped his arms over his shoulders for support.

"Alright, Parker get Irish back to Townsend. We will meet you onboard the Columbia." I directed Parker, who nodded as the two limped back to REGCOMM.

"Good luck!" I could hear them cry out to us as they disappeared.

When we recovered from the shock of the event I instantly noticed something was off. The supposed Kluex warriors were not Avian. These guys wore uniforms, and they resembled in now way, birds. They were monkeys and apes. They were Apex.

"Guys, you've gotta see this," I called out as i looked at one of the soldiers. Montes was the first to appear by my side.

"What is it, sir-" his eyes squinted as he saw what I saw, "What the hell?"

"What's going on here? Why are the Apex here fighting for the KE's?" Matkovic asked, startled. Soon all of Misfit crowded around me, some of us searching the other bodies. Making the same discovery.

"What, are these guys PLA?" Blackburn asked.

"No, these are rebels. Apex rebels," Montes told him as he observed their uniforms and banners. He held up some documents that he found in one of their pockets. It was Anti-Apex propaganda and had a rebel insignia on it.

"The fuck? What is going on here? Aren't we supposed to be allied to them? Why are they helping the KE's," Campo wiped his brow and he looked stunned out of his mind. Everybody seemed to look at me for answers.

First Jin-Je mysteriously vanishes and the Apex blame it on us, then come to find out that the Apex rebels are among the ranks of terrorists? And they are supposedly our allies? Something wasn't right, but I couldn't tell what.

"Fortress needs to hear about this, maybe they will know what to make of this. Because as of now, I am just confused out of my mind," I shook my head, I wasn't going to radio fortress right now, maybe when we finished helping Viper and Cobra.

We pressed forward into a nearby building. The sniper was still there, he probably retreated. Might've been what was pinning Viper and Cobra down at the highway. So onwards we pressed.

"Man, I hope Irish is okay." Matkovic mumbled as we climbed the staircase to the roof.

"Yeah, I bet he his. He is a tough son of a bitch. He isn't going to die that easily," I told him.

"Your squad isn't here anymore. I guess that makes you an honorary member of Misfit. How does it feel?" Blackburn laughed as he said that.

"I feel disgusted, if you want me to be honest."

"Oh please," he rolled his eyes, "you know deep down in your heart that Misfit is better than Tombstone at literally everything."

"Better than Tombstone my ass! You know how many missions we flew on, and carried out successfully?"

"Maybe if you guys were so good you wouldn't be two men short."

"Shut the hell up and focus. Sniper is still around here, somewhere."

We got to the top floor, "Stay away from the windows, get down low", perfect timing to say that too because a bullet pierced through the window and cracked into the wall. We stopped our advance only to take a brief moment to reel from the bullet, "To further prove my point I guess…" We carefully dodged the sniper rounds that were fired at us in succession, piercing through the windows and through the air. All the way until we reached the roof entrance.

Everyone stopped short of the door. Campo kicked it open. And we rushed quickly out onto the roof. The desert mountains were clearly visible from here and the apartment blocks seemed to sprawl out for miles.

"Everybody, stay low", I ordered as we all crawled along the floor, close to a wall that separated us from the edge of the building. The sniper kept taking shots at us, and we had to hide behind ventilation and air conditioning systems before we pressed forward. But then the rounds became a lot more powerful, and a lot more deadly. I came short of having my skull split as a rounds practically destroyed a bit of the concrete I was hiding against.

"Holy cow! That's a .50! A bone crusher," Montes yelped as the bullet punched through the concrete.

"We gotta take that fucking sniper out, he is going to get us soon!" said Campo.

I saw a place on the roof where I could take out the Sniper with a rocket launcher. I could use my matter manipulator to build a makeshift wall of cover.

"Hey everybody, look. If I can get over there and build a wall with my double m ( Matter Manipulator) then I could get him with my rocket launcher," Misfit nodded their heads in agreement, "I just need some cover fire while I move."

I moved closer to the edge of the ventilation system we were hiding behind, hold three of my fingers up. Slowly I began to count down, my heart sinking to my stomach with the realization that the sniper hasn't fired a round in a while. He was waiting for me to move from my cover, out into the open.

But I tried my best to ignore that as my fingers moved until I got to one. I heaved a sigh, and made my ball into a fist.

I ran like the wind, I didn't look behind at all. Even though the distance was only a few meters away it felt like running a marathon. The sniper was under heavy fire and couldn't aim as accurately because of Misfits covering fire. He fired a few rounds but they missed.

I managed to get to the area that I needed to be and caught my breath. Montes made a signal with his hand, and I whipped out my double-M.

Holding the piece of technology (It was mostly used by the Terrene Protectorate. Not so much by Marines, we carried it just in case) I began making a pile of concrete to take cover. When I was satisfied I moved over there and took out the launcher.

Looking through the scope was like looking through a robots eyes. I saw a new augmented reality. A red box moved over the window the sniper was located on, a high pitch beeping sound became a steady tone. The words 'target locked, fire ready' appeared. I pulled the trigger and was startled by the fire power of the thing.

A ball of fire hurtled itself toward the building. It might not kill the Sniper directly, but it might level that floor of the building. It soared through the sky leaving a trail of smoke behind when it made contact with the wall of the building, and just as I hoped, the entire floor collapsed.

"Sniper, down! Move up," I called to the soldiers behind me as we moved up.

"Damn, what if there were people in that building?" Campo asked.

"We worry about that later, who the hell would be living here anyway?" Montes joked, a little dark humor.

"I am telling you this whole thing is messed up. We just leveled a building that took, I don't know, five years to build. All that work, and wham! Nothing left but rubble," Campo hit his palm with a closed fist. They kept on talking as we ran across the rooftops, finding our way to ground level, to the area where Cobra and Viper were pinned down.

"Oh come on, it's not like we just decided to invade this territory out of nowhere. The KE's have brought this on themselves…"

"Really? Then tell me why we cause more damage to the city than both the Kluex Extremists, and Grounded Militants Combined. Are you trying to tell me that we came here to save this place?"

"Look, the Republic sent us here to stop these extremists from doing more harm than good. If these guys get too out if pocket, who knows what kind of problems they will cause throughout the Galaxy." Montes defended his position.

"Please, The Republic was built by terrorists- for terrorists,"

"It's shit like that, that makes me wonder how the hell they even let you join the Marines." Blackburn jeered.

"You know what? I ask myself that same damn question. How the heck did I wind up here," Campo laughed at his own pain.

We slowly approached the city center and we could hear the gunfire intensify from the main highway that went through the city. After passing a few more alleyways we saw them. Viper and Cobra were hiding behind armored vehicles, the turrets on top of the vehicles trying as best as they can to take out the Extremists who were swarming the entire area.

One of the soldiers from Viper saw us and called us over behind the vehicles.

"Tombstone, Misfit. What the hell took you so long?" The apparent commander of the Squadrons asked us when we came to their position.

"We got held up by a sniper, you should be thanking us! Now what is going on here?" I told him.

"We were just doing a patrol, when these KE's came out of nowhere and ambushed us! I have two injured soldiers, and my communications officer is dead! And we just found out that they rigged the entire road with explosives, so we can't move!"

"Explosives?!" Matkovic cried out.

"Yeah, we think they might be pressure sensitive, there is a red wire over there that connects the explosives to a power source but we couldn't investigate because of the heavy fire."

I thought for a moment, and made up my mind.

"Okay, Blackburn I am putting you in charge of Misfit for now. I am going to go and see if I can destroy the power source for the explosives. Montes, try and get REGCOMM on the horn, we are going to need fire support if we want to take out these hostile units," Everybody nodded their heads.

Again, I prepared to sprint for my life (quite literally). Misfit, Cobra and Viper began to shoot back at the enemy and I ran as fast as I could following the red wire. It took me inside a nearby building. I kicked the door down, and continued inside, going down the stairs into a basement of sorts.

Kluex propaganda, weapons and ammunition were all over. I kept following the red wire through the stash, until I found a curious gray box. The red wire connected to it. And a green wire connected the box to a unseen power source.

They thought us how to defuse these bombs. First you have to turn the thing off, unplug the green wire, and then unplug the red wire. And in that very same order. If you did it in reverse, the whole thing would explode. It was simple, but not when you were under stress.

I hit the switch on the thing, and a little red light came on. It made my heart sink for a while, until it the light burned out and everything seemed like it was off. I unplugged the green wire next, and was about to do the red wire when I saw a strange shadow. It was a shadow of a avian, holding a knife above me.

I quickly turned around and grabbed his hand before he could strike me with it. He was wearing all kinds of weird jewelry and ornaments on his body. From multicolored feathers to skulls of human and apex captors around his neck. A Kluex warrior.

He punched me in the jaw with his free hand (or wing, I don't really know) and tried to swing at me again but I ducked down and dodged the attack. I grabbed his free hand and headbutted him straight in the beak, my helmet clashing against his beak fracturing it. Blood leaked from his mouth as he reeled back in pain holding his beak in his hands. Quickly I grabbed the knife from his hands and it fell to the floor.

"May Kluex see you burn in the darkest pits of hell, you hypocrites!" The warrior yelled at me as he threw a left hook at me. I stepped back and it missed, I grabbed his hand and landed a solid punch right in his face, he reeled back and hit me square in the eye.

The fight when on like this for a while, until I managed to score another hit to his head. I punched him once more in his stomach, and he doubled over so I raised my knee up and hit him straight in the eye with leg. I grabbed the knife on the floor quickly before he could recover, but I was too slow. Another fight over the knife ensued, and he kept yelling curses at me in his native tongue.

I pulled my arm back and hit him in the face, he fell backwards and I kicked him in the chest. He fell into the wall before I kicked him again in the skull. He slumped over unconscious. He looked really best up, his beak was cracked with blood flowing out of it and a swollen eye. He looked dead, but he wasn't. He would definitely feel that when he woke up.

After catching my breath I said something I probably shouldn't have, "I guess Kluex will see you down first!"

With him unconscious, I turned my attention back to the explosive device and pulled the last cord.

I made my way out of there, fast. Climbing up the stairs and dark hallways of the building, I wondered that guy meant about me being a hypocrite and all. Probably some propaganda line from the fanaticism of the extremists was most likely. But I thought, no I knew it was more than that. In the Republic, we just labeled these people as terrorists, but could it be that they thought we were the terrorists and the extremists?

Sounds like something Campo would say.

No time for that now, I had a battle to fight.

Going outside, the natural light flooded my eyes. The sounds of gunfire still were resonant but not as intense, I was scared that they might've killed some more members of Cobra Viper and Misfit but when I reached their location I realized it was the opposite. A lot of the KE's were wiped out and the rest were beginning to retreat.

"Isaiah, holy crap man, you really pulled through. Dragon is on the way with air support, that should take care of the rest of these soldiers," Montes said to me, they were still behind the vehicles taking cover.

"How far away is Dragon-," a certain sound answered my question. The sound of blades spinning at a hundred miles an hour. I looked up and a sleek gray helicopter with a phoenix on the belly appeared from over the rooftops.

[Dragon 1-2] "This is Dragon 1-2 to Misfit and Tombstone. We are coming in hot to bring in heavy fire. Over"

My radio buzzed to life as Dragon's voice came on the line.

[Isaiah] "Sergeant Isaiah to Dragon 1-2, I sure as hell am glad to see you. Most of the enemy infantry is starting to retreat but we do have some wounded and a dead communications officer. Over."

[Dragon] "Copy that, relaying this message to REGCOMM. Townsend is going to have a stroke when he hears about this. I am going to start firing on the remaining enemy units, take cover."

We did as he told and hid behind the trucks. A rumble came from the helicopter, and soon the entire ground was shaking followed by a loud 'BOOM!'. A cloud of dust came over us, and we started to cough as the cloud of debris came over. Then the sound of a machine gun going off also erupted from the helicopter.

[Dragon] "Enemy units in the target area are either dead or on the run, that's it for them. Returning to base-"

Dragon was cut off when another rumbling sound came from the ground itself. Followed by a shake and tremor.

"Shit, looks like an Earthquake is starting!" Campo alerted us.

"Technically, wouldn't it be a Solitudinemquake?" Blackburn laughed at his horrible (it was really bad) pun.

"Black, quit being such a smartass! That was horrendous," Campo gave him a elbow in the side.

"From the sounds of it, it was only a tremor. This whole city is just fifty mikes from a major fault line. Expect the actual 'quake to come in soon." Montes looked up from a special computer, apparently it could monitor natural weather activity including earthquakes.

But another sound soon followed, the sound of a tank moving along the street and the shouts of commands. My worst fear was confirmed when Dragon radioed in,"

[Dragon] "Looks like I am going to have to wait to go home! Enemy reinforcements are coming in from beyond the bridge. They have machine guns mounted on trucks and a tank! Isaiah, what are your orders?"

I looked past a bridge that connected the two sides of the street to each other, and I could see them. They were far, but they were close enough.

[Isaiah] "Lay down covering fire on the enemy movement while we try to get the Dino's up and running! We are going to pull out as soon as we can, just try and hold them off."

[Dragon] "But sir, it might be a little too late for that! They are already about to reach the bridge! If you plan on retreating, you will have to leave the armored trcuks behind! And what about your already wounded?"

"Fuck. He's right Isaiah. What are we going to do?" Campo said to me.

I thought about the options. If we retreat we will have to leave the trucks behind in enemy hands and all the valuable equipment along with it, and we might have to leave the wounded behind. We stay and fight, well….

[Isaiah] "Dragon, I've made my mind. We will stay here and fight! Try and lay down as much fire as you can to cover us."

[Dragon] "WILCO, providing close air support."

I received another call on the radio, it was from Townsend. And he did not sound happy.

[REGCOMM] "This is Major Townsend to Sergeant Isaiah Nelson, Isaiah, do you copy?"

[Isaiah] "Sergeant Nelson to Townsend, I read you, send your message fast!"

[REGCOMM] "Be advised, a major Earthquake is coming in the surrounding area. And I am sure you have already seen the KE reinforcements. What the hell are you guys doing out there?"

[Isaiah] "We are trying to hold out as best as we can, sir! There are multiple wounded and we can't retreat. If we retreat on foot then we will have to leave our trucks and wounded behind. If we stay…"

[REGCOMM] "Damn it! I told Fortress not to overextend the advance! Alright, the 12th armored division is moving in from the south to support you. And the Airforce, and fire support leader is on the horn, ready for your call. Use whatever you can, Just hold out for at least an hour! Do you understand?"

[Isaiah] "Yes sir, Tombstone 3, out."

[REGCOMM] "Regional Command, out."

I turned from the radio to the situation. The crackle of gunfire was heard everywhere. I saw the wounded lined up in a nearby alleyway, a few combat medics were tending to them, but I didn't know how long we had until the new wave of KE's came in force. Much less hold out for an hour to wait for the armored division?

It was a good thing Townsend gave me control over fire support. Instantly I fiddled with the radio again. Townsend said that the Fire Support Leader, Yankee five, was ready for a order. So I contacted him first.

[Isaiah] "This is Tombstone three to Yankee five, I need an orbital strike on grid Q17 sector 2. Over!"

[Yankee five] "Copy that, fire mission received shells are ready. Lay down a designator for a guns to focus on."

It was a bit difficult to understand what Yankee was trying to say, he had a very, very heavy rural accent. Maybe that's why his callsign was Yankee? But I understood what I needed to.

I remembered the binoculars that Myers had given me in Baku. Every commander carried a pair like these to designate specific locations for an artillery strike or air strike. It would lay down a laser signal on the ground, which would beam back up to Columbia.

I quickly aimed the binoculars past the bridge where the bulk of the enemy advance was.

[Yankee Five] "Copy that, laser signal is being received clear. Target is in focus, shells are on the way."

"Everybody! Take cover" I yelled at the top of my lungs. All the Marines gave up firing back at the enemy, plugged their ears (they must have heard me talking to Yankee), and waited.

Dragon pulled back the helicopter further down the street behind us. All in preparation for hell.

Now, artillery strikes in the modern era are far more powerful and complicated than they were five hundred or even a thousand years ago. Yankee five was the commander of the Columbia's Ship to surface guns. After I called him, he would give the order to aim the Columbia's guns at the target I have designated. All noted, the Columbia is a massive ship. And big ships, have fairly big guns.

We waited in an eerie expectation. We could hear the Extremists pushing forth closer towards the bridge. And we knew they would dawn on us soon.

**BOOM! **

The loudest noise I have ever heard boomed through the air, accompanied by a shockwave and heat from the blast. I looked behind me and a pillar of smoke and fire already began to tower over us. But then another came and knocked me off of my feet, then another. And another.

It came to the point where we were almost certain that most, and if not all, the enemy units were incinerated. The outburst of yelling signified that there were a few left. But we all knew that they have been cut dons, dramatically.

[Yankee five] "Those coordinates were dead perfect! I have reports from my spotter that there are multiple enemy casualties. Reloading the cannons for standby, Yankee five out."

Viper and Cobra rose up to pick off whatever was left, not that hard of a task. Anybody who was left already began to retreat and the ones who didn't were probably confused or just plain stupid.

But another boom followed, but this one was natural. The ground began to shake, and cracks began to form in the road.

"SHIT! EARTHQUAKE, GET DOWN!" A member of Viper yelled. The quake got more and more intense and the buildings around us began to crumble. The little pedestrian bridge fell down, and so did the building behind us. It crumbled down and fell on top of us.

Then, I blacked out.


End file.
